Out of the Slums

by A Crisp 20 Dollar Bill

Chapter 1: An Unsolvable Problem

The ceiling. It was such a familiar sight. Consequently, staring at the ceiling was a familiar action. Laying on the mattress and staring up at the ceiling was just a thing to do when there was nothing to do. Or when someone wanted a quick step into their thoughts. Or a long stroll. Or an eternity’s worth of thinking in the smallest amount of time. At least that was how it could feel, anyway.

He was in the same position as he was every time he stared up: forelegs behind the head, hind legs stretched out to the opposite end of the mattress. By then the indent of his body in the mattress had made it so this was the only comfortable position. He knew every line, crack, wet spot, and indent in the ceiling from this angle. He could just imagine himself trotting along one of them, climbing the rises and falls of a line, running, running away, running away from there.

Running into his thoughts.

He always pondered about his situation. He knew he would never stop pondering his situation, never until it killed him, maybe soon, maybe later, but eventually. To him, there was no end except the final end. The best days of his life were years behind him; seemingly all downhill from there, and then some. He’d always thought about getting himself out there, doing something, being someone, but there was no chance, there is no chance, nor will there ever be a chance. He would always be a reject of society, no matter how kind, how hardworking, how loyal, how honest he was. He was simply put in a hole too deep and he could never climb out.

He sighed. He purposefully kept his mind blank for a little while and kept staring up. He knew he shouldn’t be pessimistic; those thoughts had already led his oldest brother to incarceration years back. His momma would say, “Be strong, keep your chin up. You’ll be the one to get us out of here.” But it could be so incredibly difficult at times.

He kept staring. It was silent in the room, so silent that all he could hear was the soft, high-pitched whine inside his head. A couple of minutes passed. He had a thought. Was it a bit crazy? Maybe, he thought. He laid there for a few seconds more. He then urged himself, and that slight urge was enough to push the thought into action.

He slowly leaned up off of his bed, putting his body weight on his forelegs behind him, and rotated his body a bit to the right, so that his hind legs hung off of the mattress some. He put his forelegs back behind his head, laid down, and took in the feeling of this new position. It was a bit uncomfortable, but staring back up to the ceiling again, he had to say that this new angle was quite…

“Interesting…”

“Kamili, you dumbass! You better wake the fuck up right now, we got a major deal today and I don’t need you fuckin’ up a big score! Getcho’ ass up!”

Kamili groaned and sat up, facing the door frame from which his older brother’s voice reverberated. Kofi was never one to miss an opportunity to make a lot of bits in a short amount of time. Ever since Kamili dropped out of high school to work to pay the rent of their small apartment, his older brother had been forcing him to aid in his drug dealing escapades.

Kofi sold synthetic poison joke, a highly addictive and sought-after drug that could be crushed up and snorted or rolled up and smoked. Not many a blazer knew of its common and highly dangerous side effects, but what did it matter to the zebra who wanted to get an exceptional high?

Kamili hopped up off of his bed and walked slowly towards the full-body mirror sitting next to the door, tossing his blanket onto his back as he went. He took a quick look at himself. A fully-grown zebra, at least in physique, stared back at him. He noticed that his mane, tightened into short dreadlocks, looked a little bit worse for wear, so he licked his hoof and pushed down the stray pieces of hair that poked up out of the dreads, taming his mane’s already messy look.

Feeling slightly satisfied, Kamili walked out of his room and into the main living area. Kofi, glared at him as he trotted over to the kitchen and opened the pantry, grabbing a box of oat flakes. He resembled Kamili if Kamili was short, heavy and smelled of drugs 24/7. Somehow, the type of drug changed from day-to-day.

“I swear to Celestia, Kam, I don’t need you wasting a minute of my fuckin’ time-”

Kamili’s gaze shot to Kofi as he opened a cabinet and grabbed a plastic bowl. “Calm the fuck down Kofi, I’m just getting breakfast, I was kind enough not to take a shower, you ass.” He moved the bowl down to the counter below and started pouring flakes. “Besides, we don’t have to meet until one, you said it yourself yesterday night after you brought home that hoe from the fuckin’ bar you were at last night. By the way, you two were so fucking loud that you woke me up and I couldn’t fall asleep for another two fuckin’ hours. Now if you would excuse me, dipshit, I need to eat my oat flakes, without milk, I might add, because some retarded-ass mothafucka forgot to go to the damn grocery three days ago!”

Kamili slammed the box of flakes onto the counter and the two brothers stared angrily at each other for a few seconds. Kofi then raised his eyebrows and put a smug grin on his face.

“Oh, I see how it is. You’s just jealous that I snatch all the bitches and you can’t even get your dick wet, huh? Well, I could always grab two one night and we can ‘share’ ‘em, how about that?”

Kamili rolled his eyes before turning to grab a plastic spoon from the countertop. “Funny, Kofi, funny,” he muttered.

Kofi walked up next to him, grinning a bit. He put his hoof on Kamili’s shoulder. “Hey, no worries, lil’ bro. After the score, we could always just head down and get us a thing or two of clover, maybe some of the stronger stuff, three leaf? I know this guy wh-”

Kamili, who had been angrily eating spoonfuls of the dry oat flakes, interrupted Kofi.

“Or, crazy idea, we could always just pay our mothafuckin’ rent with the money we get! You’re always spending our bits on your stupid-ass clover and you’re too busy being a fuckin’ retard and fuckin’ blazing it instead of trying to keep us above the line!”

As Kamili ranted, Kofi stared at him with a glare and a ruffled brow.

“A home? Nah, we don’t need it. Food? Nope, we got plenty of clover. Water? It’s all good, I’d much rather be getting high than fuckin’ staying alive!”

Finally, Kofi groaned in annoyance, holding his hooves up. “Fine, fine! I won’t buy any drugs this week. Celestia, Kamili, you can be a real fuckin’ annoying piece of shit sometimes,” he said, walking towards the single couch in the room. As he hopped onto it, he looked at the clock above the door. “You should still hurry up tho, we need to be meetin’ there in 30 minutes, you know how long it takes to walk there.”

Kamili sped up his eating, taking no more than a few minutes to eat the rest of his cereal. He tossed the bowl and the spoon into the sink, onto an already large pile of dishes. There hadn’t been any soap in sight in the kitchen for a week and a half. Not like that’s gonna change anytime soon, Kamili thought as he put on his winter coat, keeping the blanket on as an extra layer, and also for good luck. Kofi followed suit, as well as grabbing a black duffel bag next to the door. They stepped out of their room and headed downstairs.

The cold wind hit the two brothers as they stepped outside the building. It was a chilly midwinter day in Bronclyn, and it seemed like not many pony or zebra were out and about. The brothers shivered and looked at each other. They then started to make their way to where they would be meeting their partners and eventually, selling their load of poison joke to a small group of zebra that would be meeting them there at some point later. At least, that was the plan according to Kofi, who had always pegged himself as the mastermind behind the success of their deals.

The mild winds only picked up over the course of the brothers’ journey to meet with their partners. They both shivered quite a lot, despite the winter coats that they had put on. As they trotted down the cold sidewalk side-by-side, Kamili spotted a white unicorn mare coming their way. As she trotted closer, Kamili’s eyes widened. She was a beautiful specimen, her purple curls bouncing up and down with her every step and her white color glistening radiantly in the sunlight. Kamili glanced over to Kofi, which was when he found that, quite unfortunately for the both of them, the pretty white mare had caught his eye as well. And Kofi was grinning widely.

As the mare approached closer, Kofi let out a loud whistle and shouted at her, “Hey, beautiful! You look like a sexy lil’ marshmallow!” She noticed the comments being made in her direction and rolled her eyes in disapproval as she passed them. Kamili heard Kofi mutter under his breath, “How about we see if you’re soft like one too…” and watched, petrified, as he promptly reached behind her and grabbed her flank. Kamili was able to catch a glimpse of her cutie mark from under Kofi’s hooves: a trio of gleaming diamonds. She pulled herself from Kofi’s grasp, looking at both of the zebra brothers, horrified. Kamili also looked in shock at his brother, who was giggling like a school child who had pulled his first prank.

“What the fuck, Kofi?” Kamili yelled. He turned his gaze to the unicorn mare. “I’m so sorry about him, he needs some sense knocked into his head… You should go.” He shooed the distraught mare away quickly and glared at his brother.

“What the fuck was going on inside that retarded brain of yours, you complete and utter dipshit?”

“What? She was sexy as fuck, bro. Plus, she had a really nice ass…” Kofi reminisced, squeezing his hooves around in thin air as if the mare’s rump was still in his grip.

Kamili knocked hard on Kofi’s skull a couple of times. “You can’t keep going around doing stuff like that, Kofi. You’ll definitely get called out more for grabbing a pony mare’s ass out in the open and in the middle of the afternoon than selling poison joke down in an alleyway, you know that?” He started to trot down the sidewalk again. “Who’s the dumbass now?” he muttered, far enough away so that Kofi wasn’t able to hear him. Kofi eventually resumed his trot behind him, whispering curses at Kamili and rubbing his head.

As Kamili was trotting out in front, he looked up at the sky. The sun was overhead somewhat, covered by a light layer of clouds. In the far distance, he could see a group of pegasi flying. Most of them had darker colors, easily letting him see the loops and flips that they performed. There was one pegasus, however, that seemed to be the exact color of the sky, and it was moving so fast that he could barely make it out even when it passed in front of the clouds.

He knew a pegasus once, back when he was in elementary school. Out of the few ponies that even attended, he was the only one of his kind. He’d never really been friends with him, but they had talked every once in awhile, maybe at recess or a school project? He couldn’t really gather too many of the details from the abyss that was his long-term memory.

What he did remember about that colt, however, was that he’d always be the referee whenever they’d be playing tag, due to his ability to fly up an observe the game from a height. Some of the little colts and fillies asked him to play every once in a while, but he always said no in honor of keeping everything fair. Kamili liked that aspect of him, maybe that’s why the thought had popped into his head.

“Hey dumbass, stop daydreamin’ and pay attention, we’ve got stuff to do,” Kofi said, pulling Kamili out of his thoughts.

They had reached an alleyway in the side of a stone large building to the left of them. They turned in. The alley was cramped and extremely shaded. It was still visible in the early afternoon, however. It smelled of poison joke, a sharp, nasty smell, maybe a few days old. There was a pile of cardboard boxes piled up against the right wall, but whoever put them there wasn’t Kamili’s business. The duo walked all the way down to the end, where a wooden door stood. Kofi stepped up to it and raised his hoof. He then knocked, tapping rhythmically, using his secret code to identify co-workers from clients.

As Kofi knocked, Kamili saw something out of the corner of his eye. He sharply turned his head to the right at the pile of boxes. It went quiet for a few seconds, Kamili continuing to stare. It must have been my imagination, he thought. No doubt about it, he thought. But even with those thoughts running through his head, he kept staring.

Suddenly, the door opened and Kamili’s gaze jolted back to the left where he saw a tall, lanky zebra peeking his head through the crack, his thick mane covering his eyes. How he could see through all that, Kamili never knew.

“Whas goooooood, Kofi?” spoke the zebra, slurring his words a bit. “You ready for some biiiiiiiig bits?”

Kofi snorted loudly. “Yeah dude, we ready, ain’t we Kam?” he said, looking over at Kamili, who raised his eyebrows.

The zebra at the door smiled widely, revealing his deep yellow teeth. “Yeah you is, bruh.” He opened the door the rest of the way to let the two through. “You know, I always be thinkin’ that Kam’s gonna be da one rat us out to the cops one day.”

“Nah bro, he love me too much, dontchu lil’ bro?” said Kofi, grinning and looking right at his brother.

Kamili gave a sarcastic smile as the door closed behind them. “Whatever you say, ‘Boss’.”

Author's Note:

So I had an idea and I wrote something. Praise me!

Comments

[isabellaawesomesauce]

I really like the describing! I also like the storyline, it’s interesting.

[A Crisp 20 Dollar Bill]

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Thanks for checking it out!